MTA Board Approves Project to Rebuild LIRR Bridge at Post Avenue in WestburyNovember 16th, 2016The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board has approved a contract for the design and construction of a new bridge carrying the Long Island Rail Road tracks over Post Avenue at the Westbury LIRR station.The new bridge will replace a deteriorated span that has been in service for 102 years. The new span would be safer for vehicular traffic, meeting the latest standards and requirements of the New York State Department of Transportation. The rebuilt bridge will increase the clearance to 14 feet above the roadway, a full two feet and two inches higher than the current clearance of 11 feet, 10 inches.The increase in clearance is expected to improve train service by reducing the number of instances in which over-height trucks strike the bridge, which can result in train delays for thousands of LIRR customers. The bridge has been struck by trucks between five and nine times per year in each of the past six years.The contract was packaged as a “design-build” contract, a type of contract that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has asked the MTA to use whenever possible to reduce the length of time it takes to complete construction projects. Under this type of contract, the same firm that designs a project also builds it to the specifications it has designed.LIRR President Patrick A. Nowakowski said: “With the award of this contract, we’re working to improve Main Line train service with a modern bridge with a higher clearance that will reduce bridge strikes, and the train delays that can result. And by using the design-build contracting method, we’re doing this in the most efficient, and fastest way possible.”The contract for the Post Avenue bridge reconstruction was awarded to Halmar International Inc., an engineering and construction concern based in Nanuet, N.Y. There were four other major competitors answering a Request for Proposals, which was issued by the railroad in August. After careful analysis of all the proposals, an LIRR deemed Halmar’s offer the best from both a technical perspective and price. Halmar’s proposal of $9.7 million was $1.6 million below the LIRR’s cost estimate for the project.LIRR officials said the reconstruction work would require one weekend train service outage on the Main Line, projected for October 2017.The railroad has carefully managed similar weekend service suspension, most recently for the demolition and reconstruction of the Ellison Avenue Bridge along the same route in Westbury and the replacement of the Colonial Road Bridge on the Port Washington Branch near Great Neck station.Under terms of the contract, the LIRR and Halmar have set a goal of having 17 percent of the subcontracting work performed by minority-owned, woman-owned and disadvantaged business enterprises, an initiative that Governor Cuomo has made a priority for state agencies as well as the operating agencies of the MTA.In addition to improving conditions for LIRR customers, motorists and truckers, the new bridge will also be able to accommodate a third Main Line track, in line with other infrastructure improvements in the corridor over the years and also in line with Governor Cuomo's proposed LIRR Expansion project.

Post Avenue re: lane narrowing - Post Avenue has 3 lanes running under the bridge plus sidewalks on both sides. I'm not sure to what extent the lanes will be narrowed.The mentioned remaining low level platform - is it in reference to platforms that were there before the current high level platforms? or much earlier pre 1914 platform?Ray

The Post Avenue Bridge has walkways on both sides of the tracks which were once part of the previous low level platforms. The staircase at the W end of the eastbound platform goes down to this level and then leads further down into the parking lot alongside Post Avenue. These two walkways are fenced off from access but are visible easily from each of Westbury's platform Wends. All other remaining remnants of the low level platforms were removed when the currentplatforms were built. Many LIRR stations that had wood/asphalt high platforms built during theM1 introductory years (1968-1972) were built right over existing low level platforms.

From reading the information about this project and noting that this is scheduled to be a one weekend outage I suspect that the new bridge will be placed alongside the old bridge and beeither rolled or jacked into place replacing the old bridge which will probably be hauled away.It will be interesting to note if it will have provisions for the future third track (which it should).

MACTRAXX

EXPRESS TRAIN TO NEW YORK PENN STATION-NO JAMAICA ON THIS TRAIN-PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING TRAIN DOORS

Scheduled work is starting: The LIRR owned parking lot (south lot) will have partial closure starting on Monday, May 15 of about 30 parking spaces. Lane and sidewalk closures will start in June. Additional parking spaces will occur in August for the onsite construction of the new bridge. The bridge will be replaced on the weekend of October 21-22Ray

They have fenced in a section of the LIRR owned parking lot to get started with the work. Amrtak7 - I'm not sure what you are thinking about re: midday single track outages. The new bridge will be assembled in the parking lot and installed over the weekend of October 21-22. The abutments will also have to be rebuilt/modified - some temporary support will have to be used. I watched the replacement of the Roslyn Road bridge and the worked around the clock. They used Bay Crane equipment (monsters) - very interesting!!Ray

Monday, August 14 additional parking spaces will be fenced off for the construction of the bridge for a total of 89 spaces.There has been quite a bit of work done on the abutments.The replacement is on schedule for Friday, October 20 - Sunday, October 22.

Off topic - additional spaces will be off limits Saturday, August 19 - Monday, August 28 for bus service to the PGA Northern Trust Golf Tournament at Glen Oaks Golf Club in Old Westbury. Ray